Conventionally, in a lens drive device for driving a photographing lens of a camera which is mounted on a cellular phone or the like, a lens drive device has been known which is provided with a lens holder holding a plurality of lenses and being movable in an optical axis direction and a drive mechanism part for driving the lens holder in the optical axis direction (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-198948). In the lens drive device described in the Patent Literature, a drive coil wound around in a square shape is fixed on an outer peripheral side of a lens holder and two drive magnets are disposed so as to sandwich the drive coil from both sides in the optical axis direction.
In recent years, in the camera mounted on a cellular phone market or the like, the requirement for making a camera thin has been further increased and, in order to meet the requirement, the requirement for making a lens drive device used in a camera thin has been also increased. However, in the lens drive device described in the Patent Literature, since two drive magnets are disposed so as to sandwich the drive coil fixed to the lens holder from both sides in the optical axis direction, when the device is made thin, a gap space between two drive magnets in the optical axis direction becomes narrow. Therefore, in the lens drive device, when the device is set to make thinner, it is difficult to secure a stroke of the lens.